


Tonight We Fly

by Lothiriel84



Category: The Monster Hunters (Podcast)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Heavy Drinking, Parenthood, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24759067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothiriel84/pseuds/Lothiriel84
Summary: Looking into all your livesAnd wondering whyHappiness is so hard to find
Kudos: 2





	Tonight We Fly

Unsurprising enough, they find him in one of the seediest bars in Soho, hugging an empty bottle of scotch and muttering to himself in his sleep.

“Thank you, Suki,” she sighs, bracing herself for the unpleasantness of her duty. “I’ll take it from here.”

With a tight nod of her head Suki vanishes back into the shadows, leaving her to deal with the situation at hand. Even now, she can’t quite fathom what she saw in him, way back when – the thrill of seduction quickly evaporated in the face of his borderline pathological avoidance of taking any sort of responsibility for his actions. And while she could never regret the circumstances leading up to her motherhood, she still partly blames herself for causing her son to grow up without a suitable father figure – no matter how wonderful Lauren is in her new role as Stewart’s surrogate parent of sorts.

“If this is yet another of Lorrimer’s disastrous misreadings of the situation,” she grits through her teeth, leaning across the table to grab Roy by the lapels of his safari jacket. She manages to shake him awake, eventually, and he blinks sluggishly in her general direction, manifestly confused as to their exact whereabouts.

“Martine?” he slurs at length, running a hand across his face. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” she bites back, sarcasm bleeding through her tone. This is a terminally bad idea, she’s certain of that, but deep down she knows Lorrimer was right, and she owes it to Stewart to at least give his father a chance. “But I’ve never been one for rhetorical questions, I’m afraid.”

“Fancy a drink?” he grins, stupidly, twirling the empty class between his fingers, and she feels like she’s this close to losing her last shred of patience.

“I’m driving you to your flat. Now. I would appreciate it if you could walk yourself out of the door, though I’ll admit it’s a bit of a stretch, given your current conditions.”

“Ah! I’m perfectly fine,” Roy shrugs it off, nonchalantly, and makes a botched attempt at standing up. He wobbles, sways, and narrowly avoids falling from his chair as he sinks back into it.

“Oh, give me strength,” she huffs under her breath, and resigns herself to physically hauling him out of the bar.

“Why, Martine,” he laughs, one arm draped loosely around her shoulders as she guides him out of the building. “I had no idea you were so keen of having me all to yourself.”

She lets him slump against the side of her car as she swings the door open. “You should count yourself lucky I won’t stoop so low as to punch a stupefied man in the face,” she retorts, somewhat frostily, and all but shoves him into the passenger seat. “But still, I wouldn’t push my luck, if I were you.”

He’s out like a light as soon as his head hits the headrest. She pinches the bridge of her nose, takes a moment to collect herself, and starts the car.

* * *

“I’m sober now,” he claims after the third cup of coffee, which she had to go out and borrow from the next-door neighbours as his cupboards are full of nothing but cheap booze. “You can tell me whatever it is you came all the way down from Cambridge for.”

“We’re not having this conversation until you’ve slept it off, and that’s final,” she states as calmly as she can manage, though her fingers are itching to throw all those blasted bottles to his face.

“I’m not an idiot, you know,” he points out, his voice breaking ever so slightly. He sounds nothing like his usual, ostensibly confident self right now. “I don’t need any of you lot to – to look after me, like I was some kind of schoolkid playing truants.”

She actually has to bite her tongue to prevent herself from speaking her mind; he’s in a vulnerable state, she can tell as much, even without Lorrimer advising her to go easy on him – which he did all the same, at some length. “Then stop behaving like one,” she settles for, eventually, pushing a glass of water into his hands.

“What’s it to you?” he sulks into the glass, taking a cautious sip for good measure. “You’ve got that there Lauren, and I bet she didn’t tell you she wanted to quit monster hunting because you’re both getting on a bit and she’d rather settle down with the lovely Suki, if that’s all right with you.”

The raw hurt to his tone is palpable, and she’s momentarily taken aback. For all that Lorrimer did indeed explain the situation to her, she wasn’t quite expecting Roy to _care_ this much.

“Stop looking at me like that,” he snaps, as if to break the silence stretching on between them. “It’s not as if I haven’t been kicked out of someone else’s flat before. And if Lorrimer wants to pretend he’s tired of this life, then who am I to argue?”

“There’s more to life than hunting monsters and drinking booze, Roy,” she points out, not unkindly. “Even Lauren and I, we’re more than just a team.”

She can see the exact moment the penny finally drops. “So, you two are...”

“Partners. Yes.”

To his credit, Roy doesn’t so much look scandalised as he appears to just have had a minor revelation of his own. “Oh. Yeah, I – I can see that.”

“You can’t blame Lorrimer for wanting to make a life for himself and Suki. They both deserve it, after everything they’ve been through.”

“I know. I’m not an idiot,” he repeats, his voice carefully blank now. She can hear the unspoken, _I just haven’t the faintest what to do with myself now._

For a moment there, he reminds her of Stewart – his occasional moments of sudden vulnerability, when he comes to sit at her side, silently begging her to make everything better. “Go and have a lie down,” she coaxes him, as she would do with her – well, _their_ son. “There’s something we need to discuss, and I’d rather you had all your wits about when we do.”

“Now you’re starting to sound like my mother,” Roy sighs, his mouth curled in the beginning of a grimace.

 _You have no idea_ , she thinks to herself, her face a careful mask of neutrality. She just has to make this work, for Stewart’s sake – and Roy’s as well, she supposes, if what Lorrimer told her is anything to go by. “Good night, Roy,” she says, even as she collects her coat and her car keys. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Martine,” he waves her off with a nod of his head, half-empty glass of water still clutched between his fingers.

Tomorrow, she thinks decisively, clicking the door shut on her way out.


End file.
